The South Australian Amalgamation Experience

Thursday, August 27, 2009

If you are still thinking that amalgamation is a positive experience for our Shire and others like it, you may be interested to read the following. This is an excerpt from a person in South Australia who has experienced amalgamation:

"The District Council of Yorke Peninsula was formed in Feb 1997.The Council covers an area of 5,834 sq kms, has a distance of approximately 175 kms between its northern and southern boundaries, and being a Peninsula, has a varying width east to west averaging approximately 30 kms.
The Council is unique in comparison to other Local Government Authorities in that it is bordered by sea on three sides and as such has 435 kms of coast line. The Council shares its northern boundary with the District Council of the Copper Coast, District Council of Barunga West and the Wakefield Regional Council.
BRIEF:
At the time of amalgamation we were lead to believe we would be basically rolling 4 into 1. That Minlaton being the more central location would be upgraded to accommodate extra senior staff and become the main office premises and the other 3 offices would close and become “shop front” only, for customer service requests, dog registration etc. Later, major renovations were carried out at Minlaton increasing the size for extra staff... staff that we didn’t know we had to have... THEN, renovations elsewhere followed with an upgrade of the offices in Yorketown , then the renovation of the Minlaton Town Hall Supper Room to become a Council Chamber. (Yes we had 4 very good council chambers but suddenly none considered suitable.)
Maitland not to be out done then had the Council offices updated. The upstairs of Minlaton Town Hall (formerly used as a picture theatre) was turned into offices. Followed by the building of a totally new office complex attached to the existing Yorketown offices. And still, now some 12 years on we continue to have renovations and extensions to offices that were to be non existent but are more than well utilized and cater for the ever growing number of staff.

I have been present at meetings where the Council have been asked how many current employees, they have...the answer is usually ...around 150. However they will never give the break down of inside workers to outside workers. Eg white collar to Blue collar. We have far too many secretaries and assistants, managers and pa’s. We have 2 full time IT “specialists”.

Things that come to mind since amalgamation
NO maintenance is done on the local halls. Every town has an Institute or Hall which is Council property. Towns now desperate and setting up public committees and raising funds as halls in such bad state of repair and must be fixed. Small communities are proud of their local hall.
Town ovals and facilities have been let go, little or no maintenance. Sporting Clubs being charged increasing fees for use of playing fields and club rooms, while having to undertake repairs and maintenance as well.
Each community has had to raise funds to upgrade their own town playgrounds...Very little / if any, financial help from LG.
Several communities have a Tidy Towns Group who carry out maintenance and gardening in their relevant town. Again very little if any financial help from LG and very little if any service from them. Eg..volunteers now water and mow ovals, prune town roses , clean town barbecues etc.etc.
Excess machinery and vehicles were sold off after amalgamation....only to find a year or so later that we didn’t have enough and that the plant we had, had to be shifted further distances. Unproductive work days.
Gravel roads are graded less. No gravel on roads, so when they are graded, nothing is achieved.
We have a northern and Southern work depot and work gang... up to 2 hours a day can be lost in their travel to and fro a job and shifting equipment.
Many tens of thousands of dollars and voluntary hours have been contributed to the success of these parks. There will be no return to the community. In Stansbury’s case there is threat to loose the Visitor Centre as the funds from park support this and the town office.
The Community's Tidy Towns Group, who were finalists in Australia’s Tidiest Town will be without funds and the successful Seaside Markets will be lucky to do another summer season as marketing and admin are sponsored by the Progress. Ruthless...Council just see the dollar... and see it as theirs. "

So, our fears aren't imaginary, they're very, very real.